Published at 21st of January 2019 05:04:30 PM Chapter 20
'Why? Why did I hurt him that way? It's not his fault that I'm interested in Hamarugen-san . '
Shame ran through her veins .
And anger .
She ripped the hateful letter to pieces and threw it away . Then she changed back to her indoor shoes .
Of course even the tall geek had a crush on Kuri-chan . He was male after all . Well she wouldn't be alone feeling hurt . Ryu-kun's midget sister had fallen hard as well .
'She's worse off than me,' Kyoko thought . 'Far worse . I'm really only interested in the guy . OK, and angry with him being the same as the rest . '
"He's more your type," Kuri-chan had said . Well, that opportunity was in flames now . Kyoko had poured petrol over it, struck fire on the matches and set it ablaze . And then she had added dynamite to it all just for good measure . 'Aww, I won't even be able to apologize to him for at least half a year after this . Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!'
And he had been kind of cute .
'Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!'
And very polite .
'Moron! Moron! Moron!'
And after she had mauled him his first thought had been to help his friend .
'I hate myself!'
And even though she had seen his shoulders shake when she went indoors, he had still stood by the bikes to give her time to get away alone .
'Kyoko, Kyoko, Kyoko, how often do you think you'll meet a guy like that?'
She climbed the stairs to 3:1, and when she told her friends about the confession, with Hamarugen-san's part carefully censored out, they helped her understand the sheer extent of her epic stupidity . As if she needed help rubbing it in .
At least she hadn't helped Hamarugen-san confess to Kuri-chan . The lazy coward could do that in person if he deemed it important enough .
But Kuri-chan saw right through her as if she was made of glass . For the second time in one single lunch break she was called out . And this time by her best friend .
"What happened?" Kuri-chan asked her after she had dragged her to the stairwell between second and third floor .
"Told you . "
"Ko-chan!"
Kyoko found her own feet infinitely interesting to study . "I rejected him . Badly," she added when shame overtook her once again .
"There's no way you'd behave that way even if he looked like an ogre . Did he do something bad to you?"
And that was when Kyoko broke down . Her legs lost their function and she sank down on her knees .
"I'll kill him!" Kuri-chan said, misunderstanding why Kyoko had collapsed .
"No, no please don't!"
Kuri-chan sat down and looked at her . "No?"
Kyoko spent some time pulling at her skirt hem . "I hurt him . They were awful and I hurt him . "
Kuri-chan leaned back against the wall . "Ko-chan, I don't understand . Please tell me everything that happened!"
"I believe," Kyoko started when pieces of a puzzle finally came into place in her mind, "that he's a loner . People in the windows were bullying him, pretending to help him confess to me . "
"You mean shouting stuff so he would be too embarrassed to go through with it?"
"Yeah . "
"But he did anyway?"
"Yes, and he was so gentle," Kyoko whispered .
"Do you have any idea how much bravery that takes?"
Kyoko met her friend's eyes . She hadn't thought of that . "I feel so bad for him . He was crying when I left, but I was so angry . "
"Angry because he confessed to you? You don't make any sense . "
"No, he gave me a letter from Hamarugen-san to you, and I got so mad at him . "
"Oh, Ko-chan! I told you that geek was bad news . "
"I know . I tore the letter apart and threw it away . I'm sorry . "
Kuri-chan smiled . "Don't worry . If he wants to confess to me he can do so directly instead of sending his friends . "
"And if he does?" Kyoko still felt a bit jealous .
"The geek?"
"Yes . "
"He'd better do something very special for me not to shoot him down to kingdom come . " Kuri-chan grinned . "I hate people who can't run their own errands and hurt their messengers instead . " Then Kyoko found herself in a warm embrace . "Let's see what we can do about that messenger of yours . If you want of course . "
There was a slight tingling in her chest . Relief mostly but also something else . It was a bit embarrassing . Rather than answer Kuri-chan she changed the topic . "Something very special, you said?"